Supporting my partner...
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| Thu, 12-03-2009 - 6:52pm |
Hi there,
If anyone has any advice or experience about living with, and supporting their partner through depression, I would really appreciate it...
The background:
We've been together for 5 years, and at the beginning of our relationship things were great. I was aware that he'd had some self confidence issues in the past (and having experienced these myself, I thought I was able to understand this quite well), but he had never experienced full blown depression before then. About a year into the replationship, due to financial reasons and a job opportunity; my partner moved to another country and we lived apart/did long distance for 18 months. When he returned, (a year and a half ago), and we moved in together, his depression began. It also coincided with the beginning of the financial crisis, which impacted upon him greatly.
Since then, and him being diagnosed with chronic depression, he's been seeing a therapist regularly and taking daily meds, but the severity of his depression hasn't improved... In the past few months, he's had thoughts of suicide, and after discussing this with his therapist, he has now been referred to a psychiatrist for a full assessment.
I love him with all my heart. I try my best to be understanding, and realise that he's not 'being lazy' if he sits and stares for hours... it's just the depression talking. I'm really struggling at the moment though, being on the recieving end of all of this. Neither of us have family nearby, and he doesn't talk with friends much about his depression, so i'm usually the one who experiences his moods on a daily basis. The bad thing is, if he's angry and upset, he'll tend to say things like, "I wish we'd never met" and "Please, leave me alone, I don't want to see you", and i'm really having a hard time and have no idea how to cope with it.
I want to support him as much as possible, but at the same time, I feel sometimes as though it's both of us who are dealing with the depression... except I don't know how to understand.
As I said before, anyone who has experienced living with someone who is severely depressed, any advice you have would be very much appreciated.
Thank you.

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